For much of my life I had little self-control when it came to watching television. \u00a0In fact, from 6th grade through 12th, my mother even eliminated television from the house to help me with my “addiction” (I don’t want to misuse this word, because there are real addictions out there, but I think I came pretty close). During those years I fell in love with reading. Who knew, I could create whole worlds in my mind (with characters just as I wanted them to look–rather than actors forced into roles).<\/p>\n

Rather than my mother’s draconian tactics, however, I thought encouraging reading among young people by crafting and gifting them pretty book marks was a wonderful idea. Bookmarks are essentially smaller, more simple tags. Occasionally crafty friends (recently, YT: Kimbo Kreations and YT: Renea Villanueva (Nae Nae)) host challenges to make bookmarks for children, and I always try to participate.<\/p>\n

What a fabulous way to make quick projects, use up paper scraps, have fun embellishing (although not too thickly–after all, these should be functional enough to fit between book pages), and support a great cause! Win, win, win, win!<\/p>\n

The following are video shares of bookmarks I made for both Kim and Nae Nae’s challenges:<\/p>\n